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President Donald Trump lashed out at former President Joe Biden late Tuesday after his predecessor sued the Justice Department to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts tied to the special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents.
“A Crooked Politician!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social while sharing a Just the News article about Biden’s lawsuit against the DOJ.
Biden sued the Justice Department on Tuesday in an effort to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of the former president’s interview with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer that were obtained by special counsel Robert Hur during his classified documents investigation.
Biden’s lawyers said in the lawsuit that the Justice Department plans to release the files to Congress and the conservative Heritage Foundation after previously arguing that they were exempt from disclosure under federal public records law.
President Donald Trump blasted his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, who sued to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interview with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
According to the filing, Biden’s attorneys argued that disclosure would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden’s privacy.”
“Every American, including a sitting or former Vice President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home,” Biden’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. “And when the U.S. Department of Justice obtains that private information through a criminal investigation, the Department bears a particular responsibility to protect it from disclosure.”
President Donald Trump criticized former President Joe Biden’s economic record while in office. (Evan Vucci/AP)
At issue in the case are audio recordings and transcripts of Biden’s interviews at his home in 2016 and 2017 with Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on his two memoirs.
BIDEN STRUGGLES WITH WORDS, KEY MEMORIES IN LEAKED AUDIO FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR INTERVIEW
The files were scrutinized by Hur as part of his investigation into Biden’s improper retention of classified documents from his time as a senator and vice president.
Hur’s yearlong investigation resulted in a 345-page report that questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but recommended no criminal charges against the then-81-year-old. Hur said he found insufficient evidence to successfully prosecute a case in court.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the verdict in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial and on the Middle East from the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on May 31, 2024. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Biden has separately fought the release of audio from his interview with Hur. The House in 2024 voted to hold then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over that audio after the White House asserted executive privilege.
Transcripts of Biden’s interviews with federal prosecutors were released last year. While Biden insisted he treated classified information seriously, the transcripts showed he was at times fuzzy about dates and details and said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some of the sensitive documents he handled.
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Republicans have argued Biden was being given a pass by his own Justice Department and that Trump had been unfairly victimized by prosecutors. Democrats, meanwhile, emphasized Biden’s cooperation with investigators and contrasted it with the criminal case against Trump, who was accused of refusing to return classified documents requested by the National Archives that were stored at his Florida estate.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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